More Protection for State-Owned Lands
By: , October 12, 2022
Photo: Rudranath Fraser
Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, addresses the House of Representatives on October 11. Seated is Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Hon. Olivia “Babsy” Grange.The Full Story
Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, says the Government will look to amend legislation to equalise the time for adverse possession of State-owned lands, which are not Crown lands, to 60 years.
“Currently, not all State-owned land is Crown land, so under the Limitation (of Actions) Act, Crown Land is protected by 60 years before you can take adverse possession of the land,” he said, in an address to the House of Representatives, on October 11.
“The provision of the law for adverse possession is an important provision in the law, we are not seeking to take that out, but for State-owned land, which is not crown land, which is treated the same as private land, given the imperatives that we face, we need to increase the protection of State-owned lands to the extent that Crown lands are protected,” he said.
State-owned lands are protected by a 12-year minimum, so, too, are private lands.
The Prime Minister said the amendment aims to protect lands and the country’s development potential.
“We are going to be taking our legal advice; it would be a matter that would have to be publicly debated. I would have to get a sense as to where the public is, but we would want to do this very quickly. We would have to do it very quickly, otherwise we could end up limiting our development potential if we allow our lands to just be arbitrarily taken and used without a process,” he argued.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister noted that a programme is being developed by the Government to continue providing housing solutions to Jamaicans.
“We are looking to develop a programme, as I had announced in my Budget presentation [and] we are on our way with it, that those lands will be made available for housing development and the cost of the land will not be a part of the sale price of the houses; that is a strategy to keep the prices down… . We are going to do everything in our powers to make sure that you can afford it – keeping the price low and giving you access to mortgages that match your income flow,” he said.